


We Collide (Again)

by dame_doctor



Series: Suns Collided for Our Birth [1]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, BAMF Rose Tyler, F/M, Gen, Melancholy, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Post-WW2 era, Roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:29:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27084895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dame_doctor/pseuds/dame_doctor
Summary: Post WW2, John Smith is tired of pain and just wants to help without causing more of it. He answers a renters ad and comes face to face with a woman he thought he would never see again.
Relationships: Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler, The Doctor (Doctor Who)/Rose Tyler, pre Rose Tyler/The Doctor
Series: Suns Collided for Our Birth [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1976758
Comments: 1
Kudos: 20
Collections: Doctor Who Classic Tropes Event





	We Collide (Again)

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure this is quite what my discord server was expecting! I was given the prompt Roommates and I'm afraid it's very loosely followed but I hope you enjoy this anyways!

1946 London, England 

Captain John Smith was a war hero. He’d singlehandedly taken out an entire fleet of Dalek type bomber planes, saved one of his men from a sucking chest wound, and gotten back to friendly territory 20 miles away in untamed wilderness before collapsing from blood loss. He’d treated soldiers with entire limbs blown off, lost friends in the line duty while he watched helplessly, had dealt with the nightmares that had followed and, with this in mind, he could reasonably say that sitting with Jacqueline “Call me Jackie” Tyler was one of the worst things he’d ever willingly subjected himself to.  
“And why should I trust a man in his late forties around me and my Rose?” The woman demanded, sitting arrogantly against her stuffed white sofa. John, seated across from her in one of the matching green armchairs, lifted an eyebrow at the comment and discreetly examined himself in the mirror to the side of her. Late forties, he thought with a scowl. He was only 37!

“Mrs. Tyler, I’m a highly decorated military man. My only concern is with trying to find somewhere to live, and I have no desire to harm you or your daughter.” He said, mouth drawn into a pinched smile. He didn’t voice that he had no desire to have any relationship with her or the daughter who was no doubt just as bad as her mother.  
“A highly decorated military man answering an ad about a spare room in a house with only two women as the residents.” She said, arms crossed and eyebrow cocked. He had to admit that when said like that, he could see why she was hesitant not that he would agree with this woman anywhere but within his own mind. He couldn’t come out and say that he just wanted to help someone without losing more people while doing it…

“My brother is getting married next week and it seems unwise to stay in his home while he begins a new chapter of his life.” He told her, stiffly crossing his arms against his leather jacket. The woman gave him another suspicious look but eventually nodded. 

“We won’t provide breakfast for you, you come down when there’s food or you’ll fend for yourself.” She said pointedly. He nodded and she proceeded to launch into the ‘rules’ of tenancy as she got up from her chair and led him into the kitchen. “The spare key will have to do until you can get a copy done for yourself.” She told him as she dug through a counter drawer. They stood there for a moment, papers being pulled out and piled onto the counter until she finally produced the dull bronze key to his new home.  
“That’s fine, I’ll get this back to you as soon as I can.” He said, slipping the key into his jacket pocket when she handed it to him. “Would you know anyone who would be willing to help me bring some boxes around, by chance?” He asked, awkwardly following her back to the living room.  
“Rose and some of her mates could probably help out. Mickey’s got a car.” She told him, taking a seat once again before the sound of rattling could be heard coming from the front door.

“Mum, they still don’t have the biscuits you’re looking for. I had to get another brand.” A new, vaguely familiar, voice called from the front of the house as the door swung open. Once she came to the doorway of the living area, he could see that she was quite beautiful and even more familiar now that she had come into view. Her blonde hair was pinned away from her face in the typical fashion and she wore a dark blue jacket over a matching skirt and white blouse, face slightly red from carrying an armful of bags of groceries. It was this that snapped a half-forgotten memory into place. He knew this woman, he’d been there when she’d been shot, tended her wound, had spent the night with her so she didn’t die of blood loss. Seeing her standing in a small home in London, looking no different from when he’d last seen her (with the exception that she was no longer brunette and she was fully healed) made his thoughts stutter to a halt. He stumbled to his feet and made his way over to offer his help, her eyes widening slightly as she finally noticed him. She stilled for a moment before offering a strained smile, “You must be the possible tenant mum was interviewing, John?” She asked, eyes tight but accepting the wordless help he offered.

“That’d be me. Official tenant now.” He said, shifting the bags from her grip and taking them into the kitchen, leaving her to speak with her mother. He heard the murmur of two voices having a hushed discussion before the click of heels joined him in the small kitchen.

“Let me help you, I’m sure mum hasn’t even seen fit to show you where everything is yet.” She said, her voice stilted but with slight warmth under it. “I’m Rose, welcome into our home. If you need anything, you can just let me know.” She said as she began pulling things from the brown paper bags, her bag turned to him as she carefully avoided looking at him. Despite this obvious action, he could not resist watching her as she moved around the kitchen.

“Actually, your mother said you had a friend who would be willing to help me move some boxes over?” He asked, putting cans and fresh fruit in the cabinets and fridge as she directed him. 

She hummed thoughtfully before finally nodding. “Yeah, I’ll call him after we put these away and we can see about going tomorrow since neither of us will be working.” He nodded and the time passed quickly as they finished silently putting the food away. 

Jackie appeared in the doorway just as they emptied the bags and took John up the stairs to go look at his room. “You can put any picture up if you want, but you’ll be expected to fix the holes before you leave.” She told him, leading him down the hallway and opening a door at the end of the hall to a surprisingly large room. “We have linens you can use and I’ll have Rose clear the closet and remove the hangings before you officially move in. There shouldn’t be any issues in here, aside from a little dust. We haven’t used this room in a few months.” He nodded and looked around at the faded wallpaper and neatly made up bed. It was a fairly generic extra room, the walls being a pale green and the bed made up in cream sheets. The opportunity to make it more his own was something he rather looked forward to; after all, the front lines didn’t exactly encourage self-expression and he hesitated to do anything to his room in Braxiatel’s home. 

“I appreciate that, ma’am.” He said, following her back out of the room and down into the living room.

“I see mum has finished with you.” Rose said when she saw him coming down the stairs behind her mother. “I called my friend Mickey and he said that he’s free to help out tomorrow around noon, if that works for you?”

"Noon works for me, yeah, and I can give you my address. My sister should be back in a few minutes." A knock resonated from the front of the building and John grimaced. "That should be her," he said dryly. 

Rose left him in the living area as she went to the door, wearing a slight smile as she opened it to the sight of a woman with dark red hair. “John’s sister, I’m presuming?”  
“That’d be me. I’m Donna.” The red-head said, reaching out to shake hands with Rose before the other woman moved aside to let her in. He looked through the doorway into the hall to see that Donna had obviously come from work, hair done into slightly wilted victory rolls and plaid skirt holding deep wrinkles from sitting throughout the day, and John felt a rush of affection for his adopted sibling. “All settled, spaceman?” Of course, Donna also pushed his buttons in a way that no one else could. He released his own grunt of exasperation as he went to join her at the door and crossed his arms with a slight eye roll. 

“Excellent timing as always.” He said. “I wrote my address on the notepad beside your phone Rose, and I’ll be seeing your friend around 12?” He checked quickly.  
“That’s right, and I’ll lend a hand myself. We should get to know each other better since we’ll be living under the same roof an’ all.” She told him, catching his eye and staring him down.

“Looking forward to it.” He told her, ducking his head slightly.

“Well,” Donna began, shooting her brother a smirk, “I certainly look forward to getting to know you Rose. If you can last a week with his surly personality, you’ll practically be family.”

Rose laughed, a little wide-eyed and red-faced, as John not so subtly shoved Donna out the door. “Bye Rose, I’ll see you tomorrow.” He said, offering a wave before the door closed and pulling his sibling down to the car as she laughed raucously, dying sunlight reflecting off the car briefly blinding him.

“Honestly John, loosen up a little.” She told him, sliding into the driver’s seat and getting the vehicle started as she waited for the man to get in. John stared at the house for another long moment before he joined Donna in the vehicle. Something held his tongue about telling Donna what had rattled him however, so he simply grunted and looked out the window. “Are we brooding for the rest of this trip?” She asked dryly, shaking her head when he didn’t respond and pulling away from the curb. His thoughts were so lost in turmoil, remembering how he’d met Rose, that he didn’t even realize how much time had passed until they pulled into Brax’s driveway and Donna had kicked him out of the car.  
“Call me when you’re done being all dark and mysterious!” She called out the window before speeding away. He snorted and walked up the drive to let himself into the house, deliberately shaking his keys as he unlocked the front door so Brax would know he had come back. He didn’t really have any desire to have a gun pointed in his face if he surprised his brother so he continued to be loud as he walked around the house, looking for the other man, before locating him in his office. His brother was dressed in one of his expensive suits and seemed to be writing letters, probably something to do with bullying his fellow parliament members into voting for a bill that he wanted to get passed. This image fit well with the framed medals and news clippings declaring him one of the youngest men elected to Parliament.

“That was Donna who dropped you off and avoided saying hello, I assume?” The man asked coolly, not even looking up from his writings as John took a seat in one of the many chairs in the room. 

“At least she didn’t hit the mailbox as she drove out this time.” John offered, cocking an eyebrow as his brother looked up with a deep sigh. 

“How did the interview go at the Tyler residence?” Brax asked.

“I’ll be gone by the end of the day tomorrow.” John said.

“Good, good. In that case, there should still be some food in the kitchen. I do have to finish these letters.” 

Seeing the dismissal for what it was, John rolled his eyes and left the office without further comment. His stomach rumbled as he re-entered the hall and he sincerely hoped there actually was food in the kitchen tonight.

\--

Bloody brunette hair. Blood covered hands. Blood on the floorboards. Hands on his shoulders. Shaking lips moving beside his ear. Flashes of light coming through wooden slats. A gunshot. A scream.

John jerked into a sitting position, scrambling for a weapon that wasn’t under his pillow and yelling for his men. Being blinded with the light coming in from his window caused him to blink rapidly before realizing he was in his room and he swiftly sank back into his mattress, releasing a deep sigh that was too similar to a sob for his own comfort. He scrubbed his hands over his face roughly before sitting up and swinging his legs out from under the covers, glancing over at the clock to see it wasn’t quite eight o’clock yet. Braxiatel would already be at his office so he was all by himself in the house and the quiet was making his skin itch.

He knew he had little chance of getting back to sleep anyways so he got up and dressed before trudging out to the hall closet, hoping that the boxes he had left there hadn’t been used for anything. He was lucky and dragged the stack back to his room, leaving them against the wall before he went about grabbing his suitcases from the small closet in the room. He didn’t really have very much to pack away so the process went by quickly and soon he was going through the rest of the house to pick up odds and ends that he had left in the bathroom and the kitchen. By the time a knock came from the front door, John was all packed and just had to bring the boxes and suitcases down to the foyer.  
He made his way down the stairs quickly, opening the door to see Rose and a man he had to assume was her friend Mickey. “I’m just bringing the boxes down now.” He said, stepping aside to let the pair come in. 

“Mickey can carry the boxes into the car.” Rose said quickly, unsubtly shoving the other man towards the stairs when he started to protest. “John and I need to talk real quick, you understand?” She said, smile tight and eyes narrowed. 

The man rolled his eyes and looked to John with a cocked eyebrow. “The first bedroom on your right, thanks.” He said and Mickey went up the stairs while grumbling almost inaudibly under his breath.

“Family room?” Rose asked with arms crossed tightly across her chest. John nodded wordlessly and led her to another room right off the foyer, waiting for her to take a seat on the red couch before sitting across from her in an old wooden chair that Brax had never taken out of the room from his last attempt at fixing it. “You know what this is about Captain?” She asked, voice crisp in a way that had been missing from interactions around her friends and family.

“Well, I’d have to assume it’d be about Prague, Wolf.” He said, dropping her codename casually as he could manage.

“My family doesn’t know what I really did during the war. They think I was a secretary for some important general and they don’t need to know anything else.” She said firmly, crossing her legs and lifting her chin. 

“So no mentioning that I met you because we ran a mission in Prague together and then I patched up your gunshot wound.” He said dryly. She glared at him and stood up, smoothing out her pink skirt as she straightened.

“Just don’t say anything John, they don’t need to know.”

He held his hands up and stood just as Mickey came stumbling down the stairs. “Oi, I’m not moving boxes just so you two can take a kip in there!” He called, shifting the box against his hip with some more grumbled expletives. 

“Sounds like your cue. I’ll just help arrange it in the boot.” Rose said with a hint of a smirk before she went out to join Mickey at the car. John shook his head with a sigh and left the family room to collect his boxes. Between Mickey and John, the car was quickly packed and they were soon pulling away from Brax’s house. Rose and Mickey cheerily chatted in the front seat while John sat quietly in the backseat, mulling over the new information he’d been given. He wasn’t sure how to feel about the woman he’d known simply as Wolf popping back into his life like this, but he could admit to feeling relief at finally knowing that she was alive and well. He’d spent the past two and a half years worrying about whether she’d made it to the field hospital and further on to London and having it confirmed lifted some weight from his chest.

Before he knew it, they had arrived at the Tyler home and John was pulling out boxes and bringing them up to his new room. It took a few trips to get all the boxes up to his room but, once they’d all been moved, he closed his door and set about unpacking and making sure that everything was exactly where he wanted it. He couldn’t help but be cautiously optimistic about how things would go from here, despite the whole situation with Rose, and he was ready to move forward with his life.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for sticking it out! Kudos and comments are my lifeblood ❤️


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